Meet, Sunday Feb. 3

Fast start with 10-11 dolphin kicks. My legs felt tired kicking off the turn (7-8 kicks) and I had a tiny glide at the finish. But overall, well executed. I was expecting a 27 low, so was exceptionally pleased with this time. I've never broken 27 without my usual recovery week before a meet approach.

50 breast, 33.5

Fast start again, but a major glide into the turn which killed momentum and probably cost me a few tenths. Legs felt tired during the race. Still a solid time for me unrested.

100 breast split in 200, 1:15.0, PR

This was probably my worst effort of the day, though I'll certainly take the time. I felt dead tired by the third lap and I had to short stroke every single turn. I suppose that was preferable to major glides, but it's not fun or fast to eat the wall. I rested at the wall a bit after the 100, but it was torture to finish the 200 legally. I just wanted to flop on my back and breath. I don't think I'll do this particular split request again. Still, I hadn't swum 100 evil since 2009 with the floaty B70 suit when I went 1:15.9. So it's technically a PR and should be good enough for TT. It seems fairly comparable to the 1:24 that I swam in SCM last November when I only had a few days rest. I'm sure I could go faster tapered, though this will never be a taper event for me.

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I didn't get home until 10:30 last night from Teen Fort's meet and Lil Fort's late soccer game, and fell asleep around 1:00. Seriously considered bagging the meet and sleeping in. But I'm trying this new thing where I actually go off the blocks in Jan. and Feb., so dragged myself out of bed early this am. Times were very good, considering I had no rest and my shoulders and quads were still sore to the touch from training and the deep tissue massage. I was especially happy with my 50 fly time. There doesn't seem to be any meets on the horizon until the Albatross meet. I hope Warrenton Masters decides to host their meet again, but it's not on the calendar yet.

I am really glad I promised Lil Fort we would watch House at the End of the Street this afternoon. The couch beckons after that effort.

Nice meet! Sometimes it's good to do meets, even if you're not feeling great or rested.

I agree for the most part. Frequent racing tends to make you faster and gives you a chance to work on technical things. Still, sprinters do not usually fare well when tired. I could feel all the parachute-ing in the 100 evil. I still prefer taking a well-scheduled recovery week before a meet.

I usually just hunker down and train in Jan. & Feb. I'm undecided whether that's a better approach.

Very nice swims and glad for you that you raced. I'm hoping to finally get on the blocks again in a month at a meet that is custom-designed for you -- https://www.clubassistant.com/club/m...1044&smid=4475. I'm even going to just enter the 25s, the 50 with fins and then maybe a 50 fly!

Very nice swims and glad for you that you raced. I'm hoping to finally get on the blocks again in a month at a meet that is custom-designed for you -- https://www.clubassistant.com/club/m...1044&smid=4475. I'm even going to just enter the 25s, the 50 with fins and then maybe a 50 fly!

I saw that meet! How I wish we would have a fin event here. Are they going off the blocks with fins?

Good Meet. Doing the 50 in any stroke not only requires proper fitness for fast swimming, but the successful execution of all the sprint related racing components. So doing a quality 50 Fly early season swim during heavy training as you did with minimal rest is likely a glass half-full sign of better things to come. For the 100 Breast, even without tapering, if there was meet where that event was the first event (most unlikely according to your preferences), you may be able to swim another PR as your 33.5 50 Breast indicates plenty of room for improvement in the 100 particularly if you can sustain quality underwater pull-downs.

Good Meet. Doing the 50 in any stroke not only requires proper fitness for fast swimming, but the successful execution of all the sprint related racing components. So doing a quality 50 Fly early season swim during heavy training as you did with minimal rest is likely a glass half-full sign of better things to come. For the 100 Breast, even without tapering, if there was meet where that event was the first event (most unlikely according to your preferences), you may be able to swim another PR as your 33.5 50 Breast indicates plenty of room for improvement in the 100 particularly if you can continue the quality underwater pull-downs.

Yes, exactly my thoughts on the 50 fly.

I was really tired for the 100 breast, and didn't have much rest after the 50 breast. I think I easily lost a second by not hitting walls correctly -- I short stroked every turn.

Right now, there are no other SCY meets in PV until Colonies Zones, which is 2 weeks before Nationals, so I won't be tapered for it. I tend to mostly swim relays there with only a couple individual events. Haven't decided yet what to enter besides 100 free.

In general, there is likely plenty of room for improvement in all my 100s. I think this is due to my training being slightly more 50 focused. Training solo makes it difficult to do those nasty lactate sets that would help the 100s more.

From experience I certainly agree that when training solo it is difficult to self impose lactate training sets. The other factor is the additional training time and adaptation that also impacts all that you are already doing. Clearly your current methods, training time allocation between swimming, drylands, recovery activities and rest are effective. But possibly a well honed 100 pace racing strategy developed in practice sessions could assist with attaining better meet racing results in 100 events, but even then I am not so sure the time ROI is worth it except for perhaps an occasional specific season focus, such as LCM or SCM for very selected events.

Very interesting point about adaptation and ROI. Plus, some people are simply better at 50 vs 100s. I was certainly relatively better at 100s than 200s as an age grouper. I also wonder how much my 24 year absence from the pool affects this analysis. The swimmers I see with scorching 100s have been masters swimmers most of their lives.

I like the idea of picking a specific event though. I had thought about doing that with 100 back this year.

Hello! Very good swims! The nice thing about getting in some very respectible swims is that it gives you more choices in the event you chose quantiy over quality - so if you don't get another 100 breast in this season, you've already done a PR! A good way to train for 100's - of course, coming from one who doesn't - but the 100 free was my best event before - would be just to extend up to the 100 - you aren't training for a 200, you only have to make it to the 100 - but you have to do it for just under a minute really, really fast! Try sets like broken 100's 4 rounds of fast 25's, 4 25's from the middle (breath control and that 3rd turn is gonna hurt!, and things like 2 x 50's really strong then easy 50 in between - goal is to get the cumulative time close to the 100, and also "train the spread"; ie, first 50 is 95% with 80% effort, then build and fully unload the machine gun in the 2nd 50. Make the spread of speed to effort as great as possible for as long as possible. You may not have "100 base", but you have the other base that most people don't have - really, really fast speed and you are a well-oiled machine.

I wouldn't say my training is strictly for 50s. I'd train differently if that's all I did. Why, I even swam all 5 100s in SCM this year! I try to do broken 100s once a week and sometimes an AFAP 100. I'm bot sure thats enough ... I probably need to do more LP sets, though there is the ROI issue Frank noted. I can't imagine taking a 100 out at 95% Of my 50 time! I still think the 24 year lack of aerobic base is hard to counter.

interesting thought about speed base. I wonder how long it takes to build one? I definitely think mine helps me swim fast even when tired.